Titans will try to extend home trend on ‘TNF’ against Jaguars
The Titans are a consensus 5½-point favorite over the Jaguars on “Thursday Night Football.” Not that most bettors appear to care.
The action for the AFC South showdown, which has a consensus total of 37, has been minimal at Las Vegas sports books and pales in comparison to the healthy wagering handle for last week’s Saints-Cowboys clash.
“It’s as dead of a game as last week’s game was good,” Caesars Entertainment sports book risk manager Jeff Davis said. “There’s not a lot of interest.
“We took a decent-sized bet on Jacksonville early in the week but the line went the other way. The money is pretty even on the side and dead even on the total.”
Tennessee opened as a 4-point favorite.
Including Thanksgiving, home teams are 11-2 straight up this season on Thursday night and 9-2-2 against the spread.
“I generally loathe the road teams in these Thursday night games but I think Jacksonville will be able to run the ball against Tennessee,” Davis said. “Tennessee has not been good at stopping the run the last three weeks. If Jacksonville can get (Leonard) Fournette going, it might be a real, low-scoring ugly one.
“If I had to, I’d bet Jacksonville. But I’m not interested in betting a road team on Thursday night, so I’m passing.”
The under ranges from 37½ to 36½ (at CG Technology) for a rematch of the Titans’ 9-6 win over the Jaguars in September.
This is the ninth NFL game with a total under 40 this season. The over is 5-3 in the previous eight.
Tennessee, coming off a 26-22 comeback win over the Jets, has won five of the last six meetings with Jacksonville while going 5-1 ATS. The Titans have won the last four meetings at home, where they’re 4-1 this season with wins over the Texans, Eagles and Patriots.
The Jaguars are coming off a 6-0 win over the Colts that snapped their seven-game losing streak. Jacksonville held Andrew Luck without a touchdown pass after the Indianapolis QB threw for at least three TDs in eight straight games.
Cody Kessler completed 18 of 24 passes for 150 yards in his first start for the Jaguars. Davis said Caesars has taken a bevy of prop bets on Kessler to go over his passing yards, pushing the total from 167½ to 182½.
“That’s an obscenely low total for an NFL quarterback,” Davis said.
At William Hill sports book, 86 percent of the money is on the under, 65 percent of the money ATS is on the Titans and 78 percent of the money on the money line is on Tennessee.
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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
